Half a Century

Barbara, Wayne, Art, Wava, Willard, Sharon, Larry, Dick

It was a great week-end! I saw classmates I haven't seen since we graduated. Some I didn't immediately recognize, and some didn't immediately recognize me, so that came out even! Some of us had changed a lot, some not so much as far as physical appearance. More interesting, if you found it, were the stories of where we'd been and what we'd done and how that had changed our personalities and character. A lot of that hides deep and is not so easy to get to in just a few short hours. But there were enough clues to make it interesting. It was obvious to me that all had matured into fully developed citizens who have had very meaningful lives and who are still going strong. I think you could say we're still developing, right?

I was sorry I didn't get to see all my old classmates. Let's see. Of 17 who graduated together, 3 have died. Ten of us made it to either the small visit gathering on Friday night or the big all-school banquet on Saturday evening. An additional attendee on Friday was a girl (well, I guess we are now women) who attended with us for 2 years before moving away. One class member could not come due to physical limitations, another because his wife was to have surgery. One lives in Idaho and chose to go wall-eye fishing. (Humm.. stood up by a fish! Whatever!) But it is quite a distance to come. Never mind that the Sr class pres came all the way from the east coast, and another drove up from Texas. But probably most questionable was why the final remaining one couldn't be troubled to drive the 15 miles from Clay Center.

Still the ten of us who did gather seemed to really enjoy seeing one another. And its always fun to bring up the old memories. On Friday evening we met at a church for the meal, then went to the museum where we reminisced about old times; the teachers and the ball games were favorite topics. When we parted ways Saturday night, we were all saying we should do this again sometime. I hope we do, and not in another 50 years either.

Sharon, Barbara, Wava, Carol, Sandy


Richard S., Art, Richard"Dick", Larry, Wayne

More grandkid fun

This weekend saw me at a Swine show. Hog show if you like, but D2 says its a Pig Show since they are too nice and lovable to be called Hogs. And this coming from a horsewoman!

Grandson Coy started off the morning in PeeWee Showmanship. Try to imagine, some 20 or so little kids in a pen with the equal number of pigs going in all directions. At this level they are mostly concerned with keeping track of which pig is theirs and following them around the ring. Its called driving your pig but I can't say there was a lot of driving going on. Coy actually had that bored look on his face which surprised me. He sometimes gets into this pig thing.

The big deal of the day was Brody winning the Junior Showmanship Championship. He really did a nice job but I was a little surprised he won it because it didn't seem the judge looked at him that much. I'm not sure how many there were out there.... 15 or 20, maybe more. I think the judge was watching out of the corner of his eye. Of course I think the judge was really really good.

I did get a nice picture of Brody. I'll try to figure out how to post it here.


Coy's picture is not so good.... him and half his pig.


Next weekend its back to junior rodeo for the boys, with another pig show the following week I understand. I'll have to see what room is left on my dance card.

Owning a horse

One of the blogs I follow is Life at the Rough String http://jksroughstring.blogspot.com/ Sorry, I can't figure out how to get the link to work.

She recently had the experience of putting a price on her horse, having someone take her up on it, then missing her horse big-time. The second chapter is that the colt didn't work out for the new owner, so Rough String got 'im back and was tickled to death it worked out that way. You got a be careful when you put a price on something you really like! Somebody may just take you up on it.

Caused me to think of some of the axioms I've heard / developed and maybe lived by over the years.
-It doesn't cost any more to feed a good one.
-Good ones lay down and die just as easy as cheap ones (maybe more so).
-If they think he's worth that much, maybe I should keep him.
-If they don't think he's worth more than that, why would I want to keep him.
-If they think he's worth that much, I'd better put it in the bank.
-Three- and four-wheelers don't eat when they're parked.
-He deserves someone who will make the most of his talents.
-It takes a good one to make up for what I lack in the saddle.
-I hate to waste a good horse with me on top.
-Horse version of the grass is greener concept - The horse over there must be better than the one I have here.
-Followed by - Should have kept what I had; I at least knew what I was dealing with there.
-And my favorite, I seem to follow it a lot! - Buy high, sell low!

Being a fan

Wow! What a week-end! Had a ball!

Thursday, I threw a few things in a bag, filled the gas tank and took off for Colorado. Got to an arena in northeast Springs in time to see my two youngest grand-daughters Annie and Laramie Jo take part in a Little Britches rodeo. It was cold, cold, and the girls weren't either one having a great night but it was fun jut to see them do their thing. I got to see son-in-law being the bull-fighter as he protected young rough stock riders. And daughter was high in the crow's nest announcing not just one arena but two, thanks to a walkie-talkie. I got to climb up there and it was worth it because the view was fantastic and it was not so cold, But the adrenalan rush of the whole weekend for this old fan was when I tripped on the top step of the stairs while looking down through the big gap between step and deck. All this while experiencing a bit of sway under hand and foot. Oh my! Who needs carnival rides when you can get spooked over climbing the crow's nest stairs!

Friday morning the five of us climbed in my trusty Rondevouz and headed for Laramie and the U of Wyoming college rodeo. G-daughter Kaylee is on the Eastern Wyoming College rodeo team at Torrington. Friday afternoon found her in slack in break-away roping. I thought for sure she would be in the top ten, looked fast to me, but her horse Havoc did a itty-bitty hesitation moment before she caught, hardly enough to notice but enough to keep them out of the money. Still pretty amazing for a self-trained girl (for the most part) on a family trained horse. Neither one is a finished deal in this event but are getting oh, so close.

Friday night perf had them in Goat Tying. Results: a smokin 7.5 seconds. I think she was in 3rd at the end of the evening. Following the Saturday perfomances, she was 5th and set to come back in the Short Go on Sunday. This meant we all stayed instead of going home. Seven of us in a nice motel room with two, yes two big tv screens.

Sunday morning we checked out of the motel, loaded up and got to the arena for the last half of Cowboy church. It drives me nuts to be late for church but when you have six girls and one good sport dad in a motel room, we did well just to get us all out of there before noon. I'm sure the Lord will know we were doing good to get there at all.

Kaylee's event led off the Sunday afternoon performance. The top ten girls were all fantastic of course. Kaylee's goat turned as she went for it and I thought for sure it was going to cost her too much time. But when all was done, she tied in 7.3 I think it was, and won the short go and the average, winning her first Champion buckle at the College level.

I'm so proud of her of course, but not because she won. I'm most happy because I know how hard she worked to get there. She decided to go the extra distance to reach this goal. Will winning make her a better person? Probably. But more important is the work ethic, the time management, the dedication, the goal setting that she exercised getting there. Those are skills she will use all her life. Even if she had not made it to the top, she would have won from the road she's traveled to try for it. And the smile muscles she got to exercise at the end were good too.



Way to go Kaylee.

The girls surprised me with an early Mother's Day present - a beautiful necklace and earrings set. I was so surprised, I don't think I did a good job of expressing my appreciation. It knocked me speachless.

We ventured back to the Colorado ranch Sunday night across Colorado backroads I'd not seen before, one of my favorite pasttimes. Monday I headed for home. Wish the distance was about half as far. But it was a good trip. I really missed being able to drive cross country when my eyes were bad. Thanks to a great surgeon, I can now handle long distance driving again. Its the greatest feeling, being that independent!

It was a great extended week-end. I must watch that I don't put off doing things like this. Life is too short!